Colours
by Calenlass Greenleaf1
Summary: Colours define every person. A collection of colour-themed oneshots for the characters of The Lord of the Rings. Characters mean everyone from elves, men, dwarves, and even hobbits. 02: Legolas.
1. 01: Aragorn

**Title:** Colours

**Author:** Calenlass Greenleaf

**Disclaimer:** I don't own LOTR in any sort of way.

**Spoilers:** LOTR in general. Slightly movie-verse, as this is imagery-heavy.

**Rating:** PG-13

**Warnings:** What you expect from me. Some canon pairings will be mentioned.

**Summary:** Colours define every person. A collection of colour-themed oneshots for the characters of 'The Lord of the Rings.' Characters mean everyone from elves, men, dwarves, and even hobbits. However, I'll first do my favourite characters before moving on. 01: Aragorn.

**A/N:** The oneshots' lengths range. Strictly LOTR; no idea if I'll do any for the Silmarillion…too much on my plate. This collection is a spin-off of my "Blue and Grey" fic. The idea came to me when I posted a random entry on my LJ…I was bemoaning something about Cloud Strife LJ layouts all being black, and mentioned how certain people reminded me of certain colours…random, I know. My mind tends to tangent like that.

**A/N#2:** All colours are real colours. I wish FF-Net allowed coloured font…

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**Colours: Grey, Cobalt Blue, Dark Brown, and Dark Red****, White**

_**Grey**_

It is not a dull colour. It is simply a hue between black and white, either closer to the former or to the latter.

Grey is a symbol of his heritage. It is found in his eyes, and in the eyes of his people. In grey there is silver, and silver hints of nobility and wisdom. In grey there is blue, and blue holds royalty and steadfastness.

Grey…his goals and wishes in life.

_**Cobalt Blue**_

Blue is colour that suits nearly everyone, including him. It is a durable colour, not weak. Neither is it an overt passionate colour; gentle on the eyes.

Cobalt blue is not a harsh blue like ice, but suggests an early spring day, when the snow has just melted, and the bitter cold of winter is banished—warm and soft.

It is the hue of his character, and his very personality. Sometimes tries to hide it, as he is afraid that this shade of blue is a vulnerable one, but it is not; blue is also a stubborn colour that pushes itself out when forced to hide behind other colours.

_**Dark Brown**_

No person is complete without some dark colour. Brown—that drab, everyday sort of paint that splatters everywhere and is hard to get out. It exists everywhere; clinging to every person to some sort of degree. Add brown to any colour, and what happens? That colour darkens, sometimes in an unpleasant way.

It is a burden—a colour reminds him why rain comes and casts shadows over stormy days, why people kill each other, and why he must fight. It is the hue that speaks of responsibilities and duties that hang over his head.

Dark brown…the shade his destiny comes in. Heavy. Troublesome.

But it can be washed out, faded, to a different colour—in time. It can become a lighter more gentle colour.

It is not a permanent colour.

_**Dark Red**_

Reds are either loud or soft. Deep red fits into both categories.

It is a colour of royalty, and its hues decorate many tapestries and other fabrics. A beautiful, rich hue. It has the capability to make him fade into the background or bring him out of a picture.

Yet, it is also the colour of blood. Blood is blood, and sometimes it is bright, but under the moon, in a dark forest, a cave, a prison, it is dark. Its stain is darker than dark brown, and harder to remove. When it appears, it is loud and sharp—one cannot ignore its presence when it is there.

Dark red can be gentle, though. His beloved sometimes wears this colour, and its tone brings out the warm pink in her lips. When he wears this colour, it highlights his eyes. Red, surprisingly, can be subtle.

It contrasts itself. It can be stubborn or yielding, and bold or meek.

But it is a colour that suits him.

_**White**_

The colour that is brighter than other colour.

White.

It can stand for many things.

It can be purity. Innocence. Light. Hope.

The colour is found in many places; Lothlórien and Rivendell extensively make use of it. It can be used to pattern a darker colour, or it stands on its own to highlight something.

Sometimes it is painful. Sometimes he looks as himself and wonders how anyone could stand up next to it. It is a strong shade of colour that is different from others. Maybe, it is the absence of colour itself?

Other times, it is fragile. Whiteness in a person's face or 'deathly pale' as it is better known as. He has seen this sort of white far too many times, and knows it is not a healthy colour.

More often than not, it is beautiful. The brightness of it, the way it stands out against a black background—like the White Tree of Gondor on the sable banner.

It gleams in any light, and can never be hidden.

Like him. He can hide, but he will always be found.

White was a colour meant to be seen, after all.

So he accepts it—the colour of his fate.

**I Veth

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**A/N:** If you think I start wandering into the evil ways of purple prose and ridiculous metaphors/similes/etc, let me know. Or hit me over the head.

This isn't the Aragorn fic I promised on my LJ. But it's been a rather lousy week, my computer was hiccupping, and my muses tend to go off to Hawaii during the fall/winter/early spring…they haven't disappeared yet, but…they're hiding. *goes off snarking*


	2. 02: Legolas

**Character:** Legolas Greenleaf (mix of book and movie because movie!Legolas was pretty and, well, I liked his personality…I'm still a little bit of a fangirl at heart, heh). It's been a couple years since I last wrote on Legolas, so I hope I can still do it.

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**Green, Silver****, Cornflower Blue, Black, Gold**

_**Green**_

He used to dislike the colour. More than half his clothes were green. The archers dressed in it. The very colour surrounded him. Valar help him, it was in his _name_ (And a very old form of the word "green" at that). How much more could it get?

Green, green, and more green. Dark and dull. That was what he thought. Green could be bright, but its bright was a sickly colour to him.

Then there came a time when he learnt to appreciate it.

The green was the forest; the trees became his friends when he spoke to them, and he found the hues of green—apple, light, dark, bluish, greyish—were beautiful in their own way.

Shades of green could hide him. He took to slipping up into the trees and keeping as still as possible, hiding his laughter when his teachers came looking for him.

He realizes now that the green is a symbol of him and his people. His people, his king—they all depend on the colour. They utilize it in everything because it can protect them from the shadows.

It is colour he proudly wears.

_**Silver**_

It pairs itself well with any colour, including green. It gleams in the early morning, the late night—its presence is everywhere. But it is not always seen. Despite its hue, silver is good at hiding. Yet once you find it, you want to see more of its glimmer.

Like his smile.

He smiled more as a child. Throughout the long years, though, he lost a little bit of it as he grew older. But it still lingers on. He is not against smiling, and he offers his friends and family his smiles, freely.

There is also his other smile, or rather, the smirk. The one he gives to his enemies, or to his friends when he challenges them. Because he is, after all, a Silvan elf, with a quick but dangerous mind that sometimes can be mischievous (no matter his age, he is still a child at heart). Like silver, it flashes brightly and it hard to miss once found.

Silver is like grey, only brighter. His eyes hold some amount of silver in them, and they always shine brighter when he smiles.

And, the silver is more apparent when he lets himself go and laughs, because it lights up his face in way that is beautiful.

_**Cornflower Blue**_

That is the colour of his eyes (never mind that there is some degree of grey in them). It is a soft blue that is neither bright (his mother's eyes) or dark (his father's eyes), but in-between. Cornflower blue is close to sky blue, but not quite.

Most elves had purely grey eyes, and he stuck out. It bothered him when he was little, but he realized that blue itself was not a bad colour.

It was his heritage, after all. His father and mother had blue eyes of varying shades. His grandfather had them, too. Celeborn's eyes were also blue (they are bright in colour than his). He suspected that it was a sign of the kin of Thingol (whom Celeborn said had the same eye colour). The last of Thingol's kin, he supposed.

It was only the colour that was different; his eyes were same otherwise. His eyesight was as good as any ordinary elf. His eyes did not glow. But they set him apart by a little.

At first, he could not put a name to the blue. The problem with blue was that it had so many hues that it was hard to find an exact one. Only after he visited Imladris for the first time and chanced upon the garden of flowers that did not grow in his home did he find a blue that very nearly matched his eye-colour, had it not been for the greyish tint in his eyes.

He realizes that this shade of blue is rather mischievous, because it is a difficult colour pin down. But, then again, it matches his personality.

**Black**

You say there is no black on him.

Not _physically_.

The years are long, and they allow much time for him to grow up, to learn, and…to kill.

He is firstly a prince. He is well-acquainted with the affairs of his father's kingdom. He can act as an advisor when needed, though he prefers not to.

He is secondly a warrior. His skill with a bow and with his knives are well-known and respected. He has trained others in his talents, and they speak well of him.

It is this warrior part of him that is coloured black.

Black like the nights that he spends away from home, cold and harsh because any light would give them away to their enemies.

Black like the orc blood that he spills when he hits his target or slashes with his weapons, or like the blood of the spiders he crushes without mercy.

Black like his mind when he fights, his eyes hard and cold as he calculates without thought of anything else except victory and winning.

While he can laugh, and while he can be diplomatic, he knows he can never forget that he has other duties beyond looking regal, stiff, and royal.

This is when the silver gleams dangerously, the green serves as his shield in the forest, and the blue turns to ice.

There is a Shadow on his land, and he must drive it out.

It comes at a high price. His friends fall. The trees cry out. His family is not spared. He himself suffers grievous injuries.

But he still can stand up and fight, because he has to and because he _wants_ to win.

If his duty had a colour, it would be black.

_**Gold**_

If there is a warm, inviting colour that can describe him at the first glance, it is gold, and it does not only refer to his hair. Gold, like any colour, has different shades. His is a pale gold that borders on a yellow-white that has a soft glow to it when the sun hits it.

It is a colour that is proud, yet not so lofty as to be afar off. This gold is an amicable to nearly everyone and is a colour that is not harsh on the eyes.

Does it have any faults? One. It's a rarer colour than brown or black. Gold has been described too many times by overzealous poets:

It is "very fine."

"Like spun thread."

"Gleaming brightly like the sun."

At time he wishes that it were not…not such a sought-after colour for its rarity. It identifies who he is, yes, but he wishes not to stand out. He may be a prince, but he is not the sort of prince that sits inside all day and leads a sheltered life.

This gold was meant to be free. To run about. To travel. It was not meant to be locked away, but shared.

He used to have a large number of restrictions (his father worried about his only child, after all), but after he convinced them to give up two, overturned one, and blatantly disobeyed another (One must forgive him; he was not yet an adult when all this happened), most of them were lifted, and he was allowed to spent much time away from his home.

Gold is a curious thing, after all. It can be hard when mixed with other metals, but if pure, it is pliable.

Despite its qualities, it is stubborn and unyielding to match the silver in him. It twines itself with green and makes him formidable. This gold fits well with the blue (characters and personalities must go together). It grudgingly agrees with black, for both gold and black are "must have's" in his life.

If anything, the hue of near white-gold is a refreshing, soft colour that will always identify him upon first glance.

**I Veth.

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**A/N:** I think I spent too long on Legolas' eyes. Shoot me for fawning over them. :P And yes, "laeg" is an archaic Sindarin word for green. The more common one is "calen." Finally, Legolas uses only one knife in the books, but in the movies he used two (which I prefer).

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**I****'ve only written two so for. The others will all be written as the muses come and go.**

**The ****approximate order of the next few oneshots (exact colours are not given) that may be subject to change:**

Elladan – Brown, Grey, Red

Elrohir – Blue, Grey, Red

Elrond – Red, Silver, Brown, Black

Glorfindel – Gold, Blue, Yellow

Erestor – Black, Blue, Red

Lindir – White, White-Gold, Blue

(etc, any elves I've forgotten for the moment. No, there will be no Figwit/Melpomaen/whatever he's called. Figwit is a figment of your imagination, I honestly don't understand why the slashers are obsessed with pairing him nearly everyone)

Gandalf

Men

Dwarves

Hobbits (because I don't trust myself just yet)

I don't know when I'll finish this. Maybe in a year, maybe two.

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_Unrelated note that regards my writings: I'll get out a real story (the kind with a beginning, middle, end, and plot) in time…D. Gray-Man is foremost in my mind right now and eating up anything I'm coming with. I'm somewhat in a nervous, twitchy, irritable state due to RealLife heckling me these past two weeks, and my brain is dead (This is a nice of saying "I feel like snarking. Don't make me mad, especially during the winter when it's bloody cold and when usually nothing does right. Thank you")._


End file.
